How long do you keep receipts?

[Leader of the Club]

Greetings Fellow Budgeteers:

How long do you keep receipts for services and merchandise?

For example: I'm cleaning off the desk and I found a receipt for Two Men and a Truck from our May 09 move. Do I need it? Probably not. Did I keep it? Yep. Why? I don't know!

I keep receipts from the grocery for a couple of weeks and then pitch them in the bin.

Receipts for appliances and electronics get stapled to the instruction book and filed.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

For anything with a warranty, until the warranty expires or the item is replaced.

Groceries and stuff, a month or so. Longer if I know it may come in handy for a rebate.

Moves, don't ask I still have the receipts from our first pcs in 2001. The reason is you never know when the gov. is going to come back and decide some paperwork wnet wrong. We were recently contacted about a move in 2006. I'm so glad I had the papers proving we got the right amounts.

So it varies by what it is. I have a filing cabinet and figure it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Receipts for everyday stuff, until the refund period has passed, or we have used it up. I use an over the door shoe keeper with pockets to organize odds and ends. Whenever I get a receipt from shopping, up in the top corner pocket it goes. Every month or so I go through and toss the ones that are no longer valid for returns.

Receipts for tax claims, 10 years.

Receipts for warrantied items, until the warranty is up.

 

[4Seasons]

It depends on what the receipts are for, but unless it's absolutely necessary for me to keep the original receipt I toss after a few months. I've also started scanning important receipts and filing them electronically on my computer. We purchase almost everything on credit cards (and pay in full each month) and the statements come in handy at tax time as well.

My goal for 2010 is to become a "virtually paperless" household and home office. I think the hardest part (for me) is to get into the habit of not saving so much and regularly purging what I don't need.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I'm awful about keeping receipts, I was just kicking myself today because my camera is broken and should still be under warranty and I can't find the receipt. I LOVE the idea of stapling electronics receipts to the instructions, I keep those in a file so I will definitely start doing that .